Hello brothers – I wanted to share my recent story regarding my thyroid.
about a year ago – I was diagnosed with Hashimoto’s thyroid disease – after a well-informed Dr. ran some additional tests after seeing my TSH hovering over 4.0 and listening to my symptoms.
Prior to starting any medication, I embarked on various other nutritional supplementation including selenium., iodine, vitamin D, etc. Finally, with no change in my TSH or symptoms, I was put on a low-dose of armor thyroid which contains both T3 and T4. The first week or so I felt fine – after which I think I actually felt worse than before – not to mention the itchy, rash –like feeling from the product – my resulting labs showed that my T3 values barely increased at all. What did increase was my reverse T3 (RT3) which went from 20 to 30 in about six weeks. Note that my free T-3, and free T4 values were almost exactly mid range prior to taking any medication. The problem with RT3, if you have read the stickies here, is that it actually binds to the T3 receptors – negating the effect of the T3 thyroid hormone, which is the metabolically active form.
So net net – despite being on thyroid medication, I was effectively T3 starved due to my T4 converting into reverse T3 rather than T3.
The doctor then put me on a T3 – only regime – I’m currently using the generic form of Cytomel taking 7.5 mcgs per day.
The effect of this is totally remarkable. I feel 20 years younger – it’s as if a fog and haze has lifted – I have more energy, think more clearly, having fantastic workouts – better mood - in short – it is more profound than even starting testosterone therapy.
So the lesson learned is watch your RT3– I’ve been reading quite a bit and anything over a score of 15 is circumspect – and when you start getting 20 or higher – it seems to point to a T4 conversion problem – and in which case you need to stop all T4 medication and go on T3 only. There’s a lot of information on this at various sites – I will post back my labs in a little over 2 months or so when I run them again.
Good news, I’m waiting on a consult with Defy Medical but my rT3 was 24 on a range of 8-25. I’m tired all the time, slow waking up and a host of other issues. I’m hoping they’ll put me on some T3 meds to get me where I need to be plus TRT as my T is low as well as my E.
Unfortunately we see that different lab ranges exist and high end on one range is nicely normal from a different lab company. So there are unknowns that make things difficult. If these lab normals were developed from a sample group that was screened for mid-range fT3 and good AM and afternoon body temperatures the results would be a lot more useful.
Thank you for a great illustration of these factors. Do you also have any oral body temperature results? Oral body temperature can be a dosing guide. Perhaps more improvement is possible.
In USA you can get time release, sustained release, T3, from compounding pharmacies only. I have been using TR/SR 25mcg for a few years. I take in AM and my fT3 is good 24 hours later before next dose.
I am guessing that you had low thyroid function that was limiting your fT4–>rT3, then Armour thyroid was pouring gasoline on the fire. A latent problem.
Have you read up on rT3, stress, adrenal fatigue in the thyroid basics sticky? Aware of Wilson’s book on that?
Your report about how you feel is mostly mental effects. The brain is greatly affected by thyroid related changes to ATP production by mitochondria that take there marching orders from fT3.
rT3 probably does not “bind” to receptors but is there and attenuates the ability of fT3 to get where it needs to be. “Negating the effect of the T3 thyroid hormone” would be fatal. Think of shifts of balance.
They were the outfit that diagnosed, and then helped me with my thyroid -related issues and were the ones that recommended T3 only. My labs were very similar to yours, so I would expect that they might recommend T3. They are a highly knowledgeable and recommended medical practice for thyroid as well as well as TRT.
You are correct - My low thyroid symptoms were exacerbated from using the Armour Thyroid – which was effectively pouring more FT4 to RT3 conversion. From what I understand, the only way to prevent this is to stop the T4 meds and use T3, which is what the doctors did for me. Regarding body temperature – I don’t have them recently but I can tell you from prior results I was freezing all the time – and even posted some temperatures below 97°. I haven’t taken them in a while but I do feel much better. T3, does have an effect on the brain and mood as you mentioned - I even read that it used to be prescribed as an antidepressant, and is currently used in conjunction with some antidepressant meds to stimulate the results.
As we know from TRT, it’s important that we be our own health advocates and use the great information on forums like this to make educated decisions. Most Endos only look at TSH and T4 and if “normal” will never do anything for you - even if you still feel horrible.
Great information. I started armour a month ago and feel great, rt3 went up from 9 to 15 but ft3 is in a good place now. Will be sure to keep an eye on it to see if rt3 climbs anymore